During the days of the Mayor's revelation, a bevy of fresh reporting on the federal investigation into the Police Bureau was published and new public information issued. Even connecting the choicest portions in the context that they arose, one can only make assumptions about rivulets of misspending allegedly occurring under the aegis of the police which would interest the Federal Department of Justice to the point of scrambling the FBI in a sustained flurry.

Speaking again of the Police Bureau, many of the people of Pittsburgh are eager to begin having a conversation about a new Chief and a reformed Bureau. The qualities sought after for that position range from experienced and accomplished to courageous and honest to engaging and interactive, with model candidates ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Mahatma Gandhi. Notable consensus seemed to emerge around a desire for the Bureau to re-adopt the orders of the 1997 federal consent decree as the "hammer of justice." Notions such as employing social or psychological profile exams are being bandied about, given the thirst for trust and integrity.

Our mayoral candidates.Don't you know they are our very best friends? And together, their powers combined, are Pittsburgh's best opportunity to marshal coherent solutions to many challenges?

Our city is sure to remain an exceptional place to live, love and struggle because we 'Burghers have a special thirst to build and excel. Just remember that during foundational power shifts, full-grown dragons may find themselves disturbed. The recommended approach to any unavoidable conflict with these big meanies is sternness and compassion.

7 comments:

The Rev Ricky say's the housing Auth. of Pgh, which he chairs has a 100 million dollar budget, has city of Pgh emp's making who know what living large in the projects needs to be questioned on his oversight! Plus he passes on contracts to CCAC that again, he's on the board, he is too in deep and needs to be removed from something for G-dsakes.Cut him loose Luke.

Psychological tests indicate that a Fire Horse born in Leo, rising sign in Aquarius and Moon in Libra is a transitive equivalent for a Myers Briggs test result of ENFJ.

Clearly, we need to cast a few horoscopes for any Chiefly candidates, as well as pile on those MMPIs. I would suggest that those who align the star charts, take into account which side(s) of the three rivers the applicants were born on.

To be a little less silly and more explicit, yes, I'm glad that we have such psychological tests as the Myers Briggs test, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and other such exams even more specifically tailored towards measuring qualities of personality that might be either problematic or advantageous in people that we decide to entrust with deadly force. I think such tests have been useful in weeding out men and women who have the proclivity to abuse power and who have little capacity for basic human empathy.

But the MMPI is the standard test used to qualify for employment in the CIA, the Department of Defense, and Top Security clearances including the phalanxes of men and women that have been deployed at Abu Ghraib, in Afghanistan, and in black prisons around the globe to torture thousands of innocent civilians without the least due process, often without any evidence of wrongdoing at all. Such men and women who torture are in no way monsters, any more that Saldutte, Sisak and Ewing were monsters even as they savagely beat the defenseless Jordan Miles. In fact I would contend that it's false comfort to our own self-regard to consider such people out of the common norm and each of our own capacities for callousness under pressure - or in response to proffered rewards, including just plain peer approval. Those that have been guilty of the worst abuses within our military and our own police force were working within a system that rewards "high performance" according to other criteria of health and functionality than those measured by the MMPI.

In fact, those who measure high for "oppositional defiant disorder" are often those who disobey or end up acting as whistleblowers within highly corrupt systems which foster, teach, train, and reward obedience to norms that on paper would be considered to be "bad" but in practice are supported and enabled not only by fear of punishment or career consequence, but also by motivations measured as "good" by the MMPI - loyalty, affection, tolerance for complex co-workers with whom they share long histories and who they know have demonstrated many good qualities and actions to balance out the "badness" they have witnessed.

If we pay attention to history, it seems clear that most "healthy" people go along to get along in a corrupt system, even up to the point where they may find themselves using police dogs to terrorize naked people or herding people onto trucks to concentration camps.

So, honestly, having done too much research for my comfort on the history of torturers (mostly pretty decent people based on testing and past histories before their jobs required cruelty,) I have come to think that an MMPI is about as relevant as a horoscope in determining the integrity and capability of a applicant for any position that entails such capacity for abuse of power. I'm more interested in the demonstrated history of a leader to resistance to corruption, I want to hear about their actions of enforcement of due process and accountability along all levels of the chain of command that they have occupied. I'm interested in whether or not a candidate has demonstrated the skills that must be learned and practiced over time rather than simply "good" qualities of personality. Such practices are crucial to the ability to resist common norms and temptations that have been demonstrated to be such powerful forces within our own police bureau.

A psychologist friend of mine said of the MMPI that if you took a line and drew it down the middle of a sheet of paper that you would find the cops and robbers, good guys and bad guys will cluster on either side of the line. On one side is a sociopath the other a normal personality. she said you will find cops and bad guys on both sides of that line.ergo the rogue cop and the gentleman thief.

As for Jordan Miles, I really don't see any reason that kind of mauling was necessary.three incredibly fit men whooping the life out of a young man. And yes they were exonerated on all levels. Something's are just not to be understood.

I'm in my 3rd term as a committeeman, starting in 2002, and have participated every year but two in the endorsement vote. Today was by far the most active meeting in terms of the amount of swag proffered and signage lining the roads and sidewalks leading to the voting place at the IBEW hall on the South Side. Alot of it had to do with 15 judicial candidates seeking the endorsement. Jennifer Satler was way out there--big signs up and down Hot Metal Street the entire length from Carson to Second Avenue, and a shiny silver Windstream trailer serving free coffee and donuts under a canopy at the back of the vehicle. Funny thing, she is the youngest judicial candidate, does not have a rating from the Bar Assn., and as far as I can tell, only has John Weinstein in her corner, for whatever reason. Not sure where she got the money to put on such a big front.

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